An ink jet recorder using a line head tends to bring about the clogging of ink discharge nozzles with deteriorated ink and to incur the deterioration of printing quality due to entry of dust into ink discharge nozzles. Then, the need arises to wipe the nozzle faces of the line head. A conventional method of wiping a line head in an ink jet recorder in which the line head comprises a plurality of such nozzle heads disposed side by side is known as described e.g., in JP 2000-198210 A.
An apparatus for use in this conventional wiping method is so designed as shown in FIG. 1 in which a wiper belt b is so positioned as to be opposed to the print faces of a plurality of nozzle heads a, a, . . . and able to travel in a direction in which the nozzle heads are arranged side by side. A wiper blade c is so positioned as to be inclined relative to the direction in that direction of travel and able to wipe the nozzle heads of the nozzle blades a, a, . . . therewith transversely as the wiper belt b is driven to travel.
In the conventional wiping method described above in which as the wiper belt b travels the nozzle heads are wiped with the wiper blade c inclined relative to the direction in which they are disposed side by side, so that the wiper blade c so inclined comes to act on the gaps d, d, . . . , too, which are formed between the adjacent nozzle heads a, a, . . . As a result, while wiping, the wiper blade c passing obliquely over the gaps d cannot clean ink clogged in these gaps d but rather acts to drive into the gaps d such portions of ink as wiped off the nozzle faces.
And, where a line head is wiped having a plurality of long narrow rectangular plate like nozzle heads disposed side by side in a line and having narrow gaps between adjacent such nozzle heads, if a plenty of ink stays and accumulates in each such gap in the line head being wiped, such ink may flow off the gap and drop on a material being recorded, giving rise to a printing trouble thereon.
Further, the wiper blade is designed to wipe the nozzle faces of a line head by moving while being elastically deformed to conform to them with the result that contaminants such as portions of ink wiped off the nozzle faces of the line head tend to adhere to the end of the wiper blade. Since if these contaminants are left as they are, such contaminants tend again to adhere to the nozzle faces of the line head at the next time of wiping, they need be removed periodically.
Attempts have so far been made to remove such contaminants from a wiper blade in a wiping apparatus as described, e.g., in JP 2001-105612 A, by engaging the end of the wiper blade with a contaminant removal member while moving them relative to each other to scrape the contaminants from the wiper blade.
However, scraping adopted in the prior art to remove contaminants from the wiper blade merely transfers contaminants to the contaminant removal member and causes them to adhere to the latter. Consequently, the removal member is left with contaminants constantly coming to adhere thereto, giving rise to the problem that contaminants when detached from the scraper member by vibrations or the like scatter into the surroundings and contaminate the environment.